Just Keep Moving: The Story of Leo Valdez
by all kings and lionhearts
Summary: A series of one-shots centering around one of our favorite characters. Includes childhood, teen years, and the Wilderness School. Title may change.
1. The Hammer

**Hey everyone. Yes, I know I should be working on my Mark of Athena fic. But I was in Biotechnology and incredibly bored. So I took out my Lost Hero book and flipped through it. Then I realized how many 'Percy childhood' fics are out there. Percy is a seriously loved character in this fandom, and so is Leo. But there aren't any 'Leo childhood' fics out there! So I decided to write the first.**

**This is about various moments during Leo's time as a kid (after Callida/Hera leaves the picture) and later teen, leading up to the infamous Grand Canyon field trip. I'll probably include Jason in the Wilderness School ones, even though it was a trick of the Mist. The chapters probably won't be in any kind order, just what happens to occur to me. The ones where Esperanza is alive may also be in her POV. They won't all have the 'Hephaestus is trying to contact them' vibe this one has. I hope you like them!**

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><p>"Mama!" Leo shouted from somewhere outside. "Mom, c'mere!"<p>

Esperanza slid open the glass door and walked over to where her seven-year-old was crouching over something. Leo was standing in the middle of the large yard. The yard wasn't all their's since it was an apartment complex, but instead shared by all of the other families living in the four apartment buildings that surrounded it.

"Yes, mijo?" she asked, once she reached him. Leo looked up at her, then started bouncing so much that Esperanza was surprised he hadn't taken off yet.

"Look!" he cried, pointing to a messily dug hole in the earth. Esperanza was going to tell her son that he knew wasn't supposed to dig in this yard and to go inside and wash his hands (which were filthy), but the words died in her throat before she could. She stared down at what her son had found.

It was a rusty old sledgehammer, small and still half buried in the earth. Along the handle were Greek letters. Esperanza couldn't read Greek, but she had a pretty strange feeling it said 'Hephaestus.' The name of her child's father. He was nothing more to her. But if he really wasn't, why did she suddenly have the strange urge to touch it?

Leo was still beaming up at her. "And watch!" he said. He reached out and touched the head of the hammer. The letters along the side glowed red and the hammer suddenly looked new again. Esperanza tried to stifle her gasp, but Leo must have heard it anyway. He removed his hand from the hammer and his smile disappeared.

"What's wrong, Mama?" he asked her, brow furrowed.

Esperanza shook her head. "I'm fine, mijo," she said, straightening up. She looked at the hammer, once again old and rusty, the letters faded. She picked up her son (even though he was getting too big for that), and speed walked back to their apartment. Something about that hammer scared her.

Back inside the apartment, then tossed her son gently on the couch, something she knew he loved. Leo giggled as he bounced, and Esperanza closed the sliding door, and after some thought, the blinds as well.

When she turned back around, Leo was sitting still and staring at her. Esperanza took in a sharp breath. "Yes?" she asked him.

"Did that scare you?" he asked, and Esperanza was caught by surprise. She thought about telling him no, but decided to be honest.

"_S__í_, mijo," she answered. "That did scare me." Leo's brow furrowed again.

"Was it because I made it light up?" he asked. "Because if it was, I won't do it again, I promise."

Esperanza shook her head. "No," she told him. "It had nothing to do with that."

"Then why?" Leo asked. Esperanza sighed, wishing he wouldn't ask so many questions and just leave it at that.

"Because," she started, then paused. Should she really tell Leo about his father? She wasn't sure what would happen if she did, but she had a feeling it wouldn't be good. She thought about her son's former babysitter, Callida, and decided against it.

"It scares me that you could just go digging," she continued, "and find something so dangerous."

"You have hammers all over your workshop," Leo pointed out.

_Why must he use logic?_ she asked herself, and tried to come up with an answer. "Well," she said finally. "I don't have rusty hammers in my workshop. Remember what I told you about rust? It can be dangerous if you aren't careful."

Leo nodded, looking serious, and Esperanza couldn't help but smile. "Just don't go digging out there again, okay?" she said. Leo nodded again, and suddenly hopped off the couch and hugged her. Even though she was caught by surprise, she bent and hugged him back.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," he murmured.

"It's okay," she whispered back. "Just... be careful."

Leo pulled away and nodded. But he was smiling again. She smiled back at him and said, "Now, how about we go over your homework before you have to turn it in tomorrow?"

Leo made a face, but went to get it. Esperanza caught a glimpse of his dirty hands and called, "Remember to wash your hands!"

"I will!" he shouted back.

Esperanza looked down at her shirt and groaned. Her (formerly) crisp, clean white shirt was now stained with dirt, with some on the front and likely two hand prints on the back. But she couldn't help but find it a little endearing.

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><p>A few hours later, Esperanza was sitting in bed, about to go to sleep. Leo had gone to bed more than and hour ago and was likely asleep. The apartment was quiet.<p>

She found herself thinking about the hammer again. It couldn't be a coincidence. Her knowledge on the Greek gods (or the Greek anything) was only slightly better than her son's. But even she knew enough about it to know that the hammer was the sign of Hephaestus. The more she thought about it, the more compelling it became.

Finally, Esperanza couldn't take it anymore. She got out of bed and padded down the dark hallway to the living room. She didn't turn on any lights for fear of waking up Leo, and instead felt along the wall till her hand closed around a doorknob. She opened the closet door and reached around on the shelf till she felt her extra pair of work gloves.

She headed to the sliding glass door and bulled away the blinds, revealing the backyard. She flipped the switch for the porch light and she could see the backyard more clearly now. Opening the door, she stepped out into the cool night.

At the spot where the hole was, Esperanza could just barely make out the hammer. She got to work, digging it out of the ground. When it was finally free, she lifted it to her face.

It was small for a sledgehammer, only a foot long. It wasn't very heavy either. Turning it over in her hands, Esperanza saw more Greek letters and an engraving of a fire on the other side. She thought of Leo, and his power over fire.

She loved her son, but when ever he used his ability, she couldn't help but feel resentful towards Hephaestus. Did he really have to give _her_ son the fire powers? Why not some other child? Or any at all?

She gripped the hammer tighter. She couldn't help but think of it as a warning.

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><p>Back in the apartment, Esperanza cleaned off the hammer as best she could, then hid it in the back of her closet. It scared her more than anything, but she felt like she should keep it close to her.<p>

Just as she was about to turn off the light, she looked at the picture of Leo on her nightstand. He was in the workshop, working at his little desk and smiling, showing off his three missing teeth. It was one of the few pictures she had of him being_ Leo,_ that happy, smiling, cheerful little kid that couldn't sit still. She loved him more than anything.

Whenever Esperanza found herself resenting Hephaestus, she would always look at that picture and remind herself that he's the one that gave her Leo. The center of her world.

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><p><strong>Blag, more of a prologue, really. I think I like how I captured Esperanza, even though I didn't have much to go on. I like little Leo, too.<strong>

**Don't know when the next chapter's coming, don't know what it's going to be about. It's a series of one-shots. I'll work on them in times of Writer's Block or when I feel like writing Leo.**

**To anyone who's reading my Mark of Athena fic, the next chapter's in Jason's POV. Just thought you'd like to know.**


	2. Part One of the Tillers

**I can't believe I haven't updated this in so long. Busy, busy. Well, here's the next installment that's totally not in order of _Just Keep Moving; the Story of Leo Valdez_. I hope you like it!**

**I don't own crap. Except for like the plot, of course.**

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><p><em>The Tillers: Part One<em>

Leo sat in the backseat of his new foster mother's car, his old duffel across his lap. He was trying to take up as little space as possible, meaning that he also kept his book bag strapped to his back (even though it wasn't exactly comfortable). He was halfway hoping that they would just turn around and take him back to the state orphanage. At least there no one would pretend to be his friend.

In the front seat, his foster mother, Ms. Tiller (well, technically he was supposed to call her Charlotte, but it felt _weird_ to address a grown up by their first name), was humming happily to a song on the radio. Next to her was her thirteen year old daughter Marjorie. They were nice enough, considering that this was his fifth foster home in three years, not to mention the nine state run orphanages he'd been juggled through. But Mrs. Tiller seemed too... loving, almost. Like she wanted to replace his mother. And Marjorie was so... happy-looking. The perfect mother/daughter duo. It didn't help that they both had the same bright blue eyes and wide smiles.

He couldn't help but wonder why they had chosen him anyway. At almost eleven years old, he was too old for them to raise as their own kid, and surely the runners at the orphanage had told Ms. Tiller that Leo didn't have any family coming to get him. There were so many other kids they could have chosen, easier, younger, cuter ones. What made Leo so special?

"Leo, we're here," Ms. Tiller said, turning around to face him. Leo looked at her and realized he hadn't even known the car had stopped. He looked out the window and saw Marjorie was already bounding up the driveway, heading towards the porch of a simple white-brick house.

Suddenly, Ms. Tiller was blocking his view. She opened the door for him and reached inside. "Would you like me to take your bag?" she asked. Leo shook his head.

"I can take it," he said quickly. He struggled out of the car and started to walk up the driveway. He stopped at the door, not entirely sure if he should just walk in, even though Marjorie had left it wide open.

"Relax, Leo," Ms. Tiller said, coming up behind him. "We aren't going to bite." She smiled. "Now, how about I show you to your room?"

Leo forced himself to smile back, even though he still kind of wanted to make a run for it back to the state orphanage. "Okay," he said in the most agreeable voice he could manage. He followed Ms. Tiller up the stairs, past a living area, a coat rack, and a door.

"Here it is," she announced, opening the second door on the left side of the living area. "Do you like it?" Leo peered inside. It was a simple room, with dark yellow walls with a cork/dry-erase board up, a desk and chair, a dresser, a bookshelf, and a wooden sleigh bed with an army green comforter pushed up against the wall. He stepped past her and inside.

"Do you like it?" Ms. Tiller repeated, and Leo thought he heard an edge of desperation in her voice. So he sat down on the bed and smiled at her. It didn't feel quite so forced.

"I like it," he said. He saw her face relax.

"That's good," she cited. "Why don't you unpack? If you need anything, just... just say so, okay? It's no bother, I promise."

Leo nodded, struggling to keep his face from changing. Suddenly, the smile did feel forced. _I promise, huh,_he thought bitterly as he watched Ms. Tiller leave the room and close the door behind her. _You people promise a lot of things__._

He got up and pushed the duffel under the bed. No point in unpacking; he wouldn't be there long. Either Ms. Tiller would realize what she had gotten herself into and send him back to the state orphanage, or Ms. Tiller and Marjorie would be so horrible that Leo would run away. At any rate, he'd probably be out of there in a week, tops.

Leo leaned back against the bed and closed his eyes, thinking. When he opened them again, there was Marjorie, standing in the doorway. She looked a little nervous and was fiddling with her thick hair.

"Leo?" she asked. "Were you sleeping? Because Mom wants me to show you around, but if you're tired, I could do it after dinner, or tomorrow. Which she's making, by the way. Dinner, I mean, not tomorrow. My mom cannot make tomorrow. We're having tacos. For dinner. Do you like tacos? Because if you don't, we could have something else. Mom wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind either."

Leo looked the the clock. As far as he knew, it was three o'clock. But the clock said it was almost six. "I wasn't sleeping," he lied. "Just... thinking. And I like tacos."

"Oh." She twirled a red ringlet around her finger. "So can I show you around?" Leo shrugged and stood up, then followed her out of the room.

Marjorie gestured to the living area. "This is the playroom," she announced. "It used to be an actual playroom, but now it's more like a study. She walked over to a desk with a computer on it. "This is our computer. Mom has her own laptop, so she doesn't really use this one. My account is 'Marjorie,' and is password protected, so you can't get on it, unless I log you in. But I can set you up with your own account after dinner, if you want. Is that okay?" Leo nodded and for the first time since the tour started, Marjorie smiled.

The door across from Leo's room and on the right of the playroom was their next stop. "This is my room," Marjorie said. It had green walls and he layout was pretty similar to Leo's room; wooden sleigh bed (although Marjorie's was in the center of the room and had a floral bedspread), desk and chair, bookshelf, and dresser. Marjorie's room was just more personal looking, with books and school projects everywhere, and picture frames and posters on the walls. Her cork/dry-erase board had papers and pictures tacked up, and was written all over. Leo noticed that most of the things on the walls were medals.

"What sport do you play?" he asked, truly curious.

"Competitive diving." Marjorie lead him over to the wall that held them. "Some of them are from gymnastics too. I started gymnastics when I was six, diving when I was eight. I quit gymnastics when I was nine though, because I wanted to devote all my time to diving."

"Do you win a lot?" Leo turned his attention back to the array of medals.

She shrugged. "We have meets once a month, on Saturday. I've come in first place a couple of times, but I usually come in second or third, or don't get a medal at all. Would you like me to show you to the backyard?"

Leo followed her downstairs and out the front door. She lead him around the house and through a gate. "This is the backyard."

He looked around. It was big, for sure, the size of two basketball courts. There was a sturdy-looking playground with a jungle gym and swings on one side. On the other side was a garden, with lots of colorful desert flowers and cacti. There was also a deck with a small umbrella table and chairs. And even with all of that, there was still plenty of room to run around.

Marjorie was playing with her hair again. "Do you like it? Mom says you're ADHD, and that you need a lot of space to play, and there's plenty out here."

Leo shrugged. "It's cool." He felt a little offended that they thought him having ADHD was such a big deal. Just another reason why he wouldn't last long.

His slight annoyance must have shown on his face, because Marjorie's eyes widened. "Not that you having ADHD is really a problem or anything," she speed-assured him.

No one said anything for a few moments. Then Marjorie said, "Well, we have ten minutes before dinner. Want me to show you a trick?"

Leo shrugged again and followed Marjorie to the swings. She hopped on one and carefully stood up. "Get out of the way," she shouted, starting to pump. "I'm technically not allowed to do this, so if either of us get hurt, I'm in trouble."

Leo stepped out of the way, thinking, _Standing while swinging? Big deal. Unless she's a terrific klutz, no one's going to get hurt_.

Just then, Marjorie leaped off the swing and folded her body into a flip. She tumbled through the air and slammed into the ground, hands first. She stood on her hands for a brief second before she leaping to her feet. She turned to face him, beaming. "So?" she asked.

Leo gave her a small smile in return. "I won't tell Ms. Tiller."

Her smile widened. "Thank goodness. She thinks I'll break both my arms doing that."

"Break your arms doing what?" Leo looked up at the deck and saw Ms. Tiller was standing by the back door, arms crossed. She raised an eyebrow.

Marjorie smiled sweetly at her mother. "Oh, nothing important, Mom," she called. "I was just showing Leo how to do a strong series of round-offs looks like. Right, Leo?" Leo nodded.

"Then why would I think you'd break your arms?" Ms. Tiller challenged.

"I didn't stretch," Marjorie answered solemnly.

Ms. Tiller still looked suspicious. "Well, dinner's ready." She looked at Leo. "You guys ready?"

"Yeah," Leo answered, after glancing at Marjorie, who was (for some reason) standing on her hands.

A few minutes later, the three of them were sitting around the Tillers' small round dining table in the kitchen, eating their dinner. Ms. Tiller was doing most of the talking, trying to get Leo engaged in some sort of conversation, but Leo didn't really cooperate. At least, not until she mentioned the science fair.

"Science fair?" he repeated. "Really?"

Ms. Tiller nodded. "Oh, of course. It's truly an event. Marge, why don't you explain how it works?"

Marjorie shrugged. "It's fun to look at the projects and stuff, and I've been entering since fifth, but I'm not much of a scientist, or stellar at building stuff. I'm more of an English girl."

Leo looked at her. "I can build things?" he asked, several ideas already forming in his head.

"Sure," Marjorie replied. "Unless it's a volcano."

"I don't want to build one anyway," Leo said. "But I think I want to enter."

Ms. Tiller beamed at him. "Really?" she asked. "That's great! Marjorie, why don't you and Leo go upstairs and discuss things he can do for his project?"

"Sure, Mom." Marjorie stood up and took her plate to the sink, and Leo followed her. "You need help?"

"Nah, I can do it." Ms. Tiller waved for them to go upstairs. Marjorie shrugged and headed to the stairs, pulling Leo with her.

Upstairs, Marjorie plopped down in the desk chair and turned on the computer, before swiveling around to face Leo. "You're a builder, huh?" she asked.

Leo shrugged. "I like building things," was all he said.

"Mmhm. Fifth grade, right? Mrs. Keeling's class?"

"Yeah?"

"You like her? I had Mr. Powell in fifth grade."

"She's cool, I guess." Leo shrugged again. "Pretty funny."

"Uh-huh. You want a password for your account?"

Leo shook his head, even though she wasn't facing him. "I don't need one," he said.

"Kay." A few seconds later, she spun around again. "You now have an account. Now, let's get down to business. Science fair. The deadline for turning in your submission slip is Wednesday."

"What are you doing?" he asked, curious. Maybe she was on to something good.

That wiped the no nonsense look right off her face, replaced by slight embarrassment. "I'm... I'm not sure."

Leo studied her. "Yes, you are."

"It's stupid."

"C'mon, what is it?" Leo pressed. "I won't laugh, I swear."

Marjorie blushed. "You better not. I'm... growing a bacteria colony with a piece of raw E. coli tainted chicken."

Leo's eyebrows shot up. "Really? Cool! I wonder what I could do..."

"You could always design a machine to catapult raw chicken into Ashlee Greene's hair because she made a _very_ rude comment about your project when you turned in your slip on Friday." she suggested. "Not that I'm bitter."

Leo considered. "You know, that's not a bad idea."

Marjorie's smile turned to a look of surprise. "Really? Because you don't even know Ashlee Greene and if she found out that I had anything to do with it-"

"Not that," Leo interrupted. "The catapult machine. That's physics, right?"

"I think so." She studied him. "You're really gonna do that? Cause it sounds pretty hard. You'll need tools and machine parts and who knows what else."

"I can figure it out." Leo decided not to tell her that he'd been handling tools since he was four and started building things when he was even younger.

Marjorie smiled. "Huh. Well, I bet you and Mom could find your stuff at like an auto garage or a pawn shop, if you're sure that's what you wanna do."

"I'm sure," Leo said firmly.

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><p>Leo walked into the machine shop behind Ms. Tiller, looking around in awe at all the spare parts. He could find everything he needed right here. he walked straight towards the wall where the gears were on display while Ms. Tiller talked to the man behind the counter.<p>

He reached into his backpack for the sketch he'd drawn during Language Arts (while he was supposed to be reading the next chapter of _Tuck Everlasting_ and writing a short summary) of what the finished product should look like and studied it. He figured he would need two or three large gears, seven or so medium-size, and several small ones. Pulling out his science notebook, he wrote that down and wandered around the rest of the shop to see what else it had.

Leo spent the next couple of minutes listing the things he thought he wold need for his machine. A small engine. A bike chain. Metal links. An old stick shift. Things like that. Once he had them, he began to mentally build it. He was so absorbed in his work that Ms. Tiller had to say his name six times before he looked up.

"Huh?" he asked, before what she had asked finally registered. "Oh, yeah, I've got my stuff." He showed her the list.

"Great," she said. "Let me just go show this to the manager and I'll get back to you, okay?" He nodded and Ms. Tiller went back to the counter.

Now that his project was out of his mind, Leo finally had a chance to think about something that had been nagging at him since he walked in; his mother. She would have loved all of this. She should have been the one helping him with his project, not some lady he barely knew. He'd even rather have Marjorie here- at least she could be considered a friend. But she had diving right after school, leaving Leo alone with her mother.

He pushed those thoughts out of his mind when Ms. Tiller came walking back to him, smiling. "Ian- that's the manager- is giving us a twenty percent discount because we come from your school," she said cheerfully. "So let's go get the things on here."

Leo nodded and showed Ms. Tiller all the things he'd chosen, giving her the new prices almost instantly. He felt pretty guilty about spending her money, but it didn't seem to bother her at all. She almost seemed to expect it, and he remembered that Marjorie had been entering the fair every year since she was in fifth grade (the youngest you could enter). Even though she said that she wasn't much of a scientist, he had a feeling she'd been doing some pretty fancy stuff, based on her project this year.

Finally, they rang up the purchases. As they were leaving, Ms. Tiller looked at her watch. "Marjorie's practice ends in twenty minutes," she said. "Why don't we watch the last few minutes?"

"Yeah," he answered, slightly distracted. He was looking inside the paper bag at the things he'd gotten for the hundredth time while he got into the car. He kept doing that during the entire drive to the indoor pool, trying to mentally build his machine. He only stopped when they arrived.

Leo and Ms. Tiller entered the diving stadium just as Marjorie was up, but she didn't see them. She walked right to the edge of the platform and to Leo's surprise, she performed a dive similar to what she had shown him on the swings just yesterday. She jumped off, folded her body into a somersault, flipped twice, and snapped open like a jackknife, hitting the water in a perfect dive.

Ms. Tiller was smiling. "Showoff," she said fondly. "She nailed that dive more than a week ago."

"I know," Leo said without thinking. "I mean, she told me," he said to Ms. Tiller's suddenly suspicious face. He turned back to the pool.

Marjorie was drying her hair when she spotted them. "Mom? Leo?" She walked over. "Okay, hold on. I just need to shower and get dressed. That was my last dive." She ran off.

Twenty minutes later, Marjorie was sitting next to Leo in the backseat, asking to see the things he'd gotten for his project. He was more than happy to oblige.

When he looked up, he met Ms. Tiller's eyes in the rear view mirror. She smiled at him, and Leo immediately looked away.

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><p><strong>Part one! I have no idea exactly how many parts this will have, but probably around three or four. Once it's through, I'll move onto something else. I hope you liked it! Please review!<strong>


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